A Natural Crop, alias a Norfolk Dumpling
This print falls (with only the minor variation of being 3/4 rather than a complete profile) into the general class of what I would call "portrait caricature." The subject (the Duke or Norfolk) is shown at full length, against a neutral background, and is not specifically identified. But instead we are given three not so subtle hints at his identity.
© Trustees of the British Museum
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The first and most obvious is the alias, "a Norfolk Dumpling." which immediately satirizes the man's plump shape and associates him with a food that is most famous in its Norfolk variety. And as with all such indirect identifications in portrait caricature, the alias provides the mild amusement of unexpected appropriateness. The second "clue" is the baton which folks familiar with British heraldic symbols would have recognized as belonging to the hereditary Earl Marshal. Since at least the seventeenth century, the title and its associated baton had (and still have) belonged to the Dukes of Norfolk. Finally, the "Natural Crop," i.e. the hair worn short and without powder would have helped to clinch the identification, since the Duke of Norfolk was among the early adopters of the style, well before it became fashionable in 1791.
Although Norfolk had made cameo appearances in ealier Gillray prints such as Bubbles of Opposition and Market Day (both in 1788), this was the first time, the Duke had been a central focus of Gillray's art. The resulting print is more of a sketch than a caricature and the lack of bite may suggest that either Gillray had not fully decided what to do with him or, like many others, he was charmed by the Duke's total absence of pretension.
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on A Natural Crop, alias a Norfolk Dumpling.
- "Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk," Wikisource
- "Consider the Dumpling," The Guardian
- Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray #371.
- Thomas Wright and Joseph Grego, The Works of James Gillray, the Caricaturist; With the History of His Life and Times p. 136.
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